Tropicana Cookies Auto Grow Diary and Strain Review

This run with Tropicana Cookies Auto from Fast Buds happened in a simple homemade grow box. Nothing fancy: white-painted walls, passive exhaust, a couple of fans for air movement, and no carbon filter because stealth wasn’t a concern.

The room itself was dry, so I used 2 small humidifiers to keep the cabinet more comfortable. The plant went into a regular 11l (2.9gal) plastic pot with extra drainage holes drilled near the bottom. The soil was BioBizz Light Mix, with TopCrop and Plagron nutrients ready for later. I didn’t measure pH or EC during this grow.

27% THC

Tropicana Cookies Auto (Fast Buds)

• Autoflowering
• 400 - 500 g/m² indoors
  50 - 150 g/plant outdoors
• Tropical bliss

Pack (number of seeds)

1

3

5

1435.48 ₹ 4113.21 ₹ 4306.44 Save 193.23 6354.77 ₹ 7177.41 Save 822.64

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Starting the Run

Grow Notes

I started the seed in a peat tablet and kept things simple from the beginning. A couple of days before transplanting, I moistened the Light Mix in the main pot with 1.5l (0.4gal) of water so it wouldn’t be completely dry when the seedling moved in.

Week 1

The seedling spent the first week in a cup with the peat tablet inside. It broke through fast and dropped the shell within 3 days.

By the end of the week, roots were already showing from the tablet, so I moved it into the 11l (2.9gal) pot. I didn’t want to keep it cramped any longer than needed.

Week 2

The second week was slower than I wanted. I blamed that mostly on temperature rather than the transplant. Days were around 21-22°C (69.8-71.6°F), while nights sometimes dropped to 16-18°C (60.8-64.4°F).

That wasn’t a disaster, but it wasn’t ideal either. Humidity stayed around 73-75%, and the young plant kept moving, just without much speed.

Veg Progress and Training

Week 3

Light Mix still had enough food in it, so I left the nutrients alone for another week. The plant looked stable and healthy, only a little lazy in its pace.

At this point, I was mostly watching the structure and trying not to interfere too early. The cold start had probably slowed it down, but it didn’t look damaged.

Week 4

Week 4 was when I decided to try topping. I had never cut an auto before, so I spent some time thinking it over. The plant looked healthy, and there were no preflower signs yet, so I figured it had enough time to recover.

The reaction surprised me. It didn’t stall, and the next day I could already see 2 new shoots at the cut. The side branches also seemed to push harder after that. After the topping, I gave the first feed: 1ml (0.03fl oz) of Top Candy mixed into 1.5l (0.4gal) of water. The plant got 0.5l (16.9fl oz) first, then the rest 2 days later. The light stayed at 60%, with 45cm (17.7in) to the top.

Week 5

By week 5, I was sure the topping had been worth it. The plant took it well, and with LST it started forming a decent number of branches.

Early preflower signs appeared, so I mixed a light feed with Top Candy, Pure Zym, and Top Auto at 1ml/l (0.1fl oz/gal) each. Watering was about 750ml (25.4fl oz) every 2-3 days, depending on how dry the top layer looked.

The Flip and Early Flower

Week 6

Small buds started forming on the tops this week, while the plant still kept stretching. It also began drinking better, probably because the cabinet finally warmed up a bit.

Day temperature rose to 23-24°C (73.4-75.2°F), and nights stayed closer to 21-22°C (69.8-71.6°F). I fed 3 times this week, giving 1.5l (0.4gal) each time. The mix was Top Candy at 1ml/l (0.1fl oz/gal), Pure Zym at 1.5ml/l (0.2fl oz/gal), and Big One at 2ml/l (0.3fl oz/gal). I also turned the light up to 100%.

Week 7

The plant was clearly in flower now. The structure made more sense after the topping and LST, with enough tops to make me optimistic about the finish.

I kept the same general approach: water when the soil asked for it, watch the canopy, and avoid doing anything too heavy. At this stage, the plant looked like it had handled the earlier training better than I expected.

Week 8

I felt there was still about a month left before harvest, though I didn’t want to make a firm prediction. This week I fed twice with a stronger bloom mix.

The solution was Top Candy and Pure Zym at 2ml/l (0.3fl oz/gal), Top Bud at 1ml/l (0.1fl oz/gal), and Top Bloom at 5ml/l (0.7fl oz/gal). By the end of the week, trichomes had started showing on the flowers.

Late Flower and Finish

Week 9

Week 9 brought 2 more feedings. I kept Top Candy and Pure Zym at 2ml/l (0.3fl oz/gal), added Top Bud at 1ml/l (0.1fl oz/gal), and raised Top Bloom to 8ml/l (1.1fl oz/gal).

The plant had a lot of tops by then, and the flowers looked better every time I opened the box. The smell became pleasant too. It really did lean tropical, somewhere between citrus and fresh berries.

Week 10

The plant was nearly mature, but the feeding had been a little too much. Some leaves showed nutrient burn, so that mistake stayed visible right up to the end.

Even with that, the buds kept finishing. Resin coverage looked good, and the aroma didn’t fade. I took the burn as a reminder that this plant was tough, but not impossible to overdo.

Week 11

At the end of the week, I left the plant to dry out before cutting it. The tops had a lot of red-pink leaf color by then. I couldn’t say for sure whether it was from the burn or just genetics, but it looked nice either way.

I harvested when about a quarter of the trichomes had turned a whiskey color. The full run finished on day 79 from sprout.

Tropicana Cookies Auto Yield and Final Thoughts

After drying, the buds went straight into jars for 20 days of curing. The final result was 40g (1.4oz) of dry flower.

Tropicana Cookies Auto didn’t grow especially tall, and the cold early weeks slowed it down a bit. Still, it showed a sturdy character. Topping didn’t stop it, and the training helped create plenty of tops. I did slightly burn it with nutrients in flower, but the plant still finished with resinous, aromatic buds.

The flavor was properly tropical. Sweet citrus stood out most, without the sour edge that sometimes comes with fruity profiles. The effect felt clearly sativa to me, with almost no body stone. It lifted my mood and helped with focus, so I’d keep it for boring tasks where I need to stay interested instead of drifting off.

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